


Bright Things

by yuktenisreal



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, LuTen, M/M, Slow Burn, TenCas, yukten
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-08-22 16:02:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16601117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuktenisreal/pseuds/yuktenisreal
Summary: Life can be dull if you don't have a Lucas in it. Ten's playful rivalry with Lucas gets a bit complicated when preparing for NCT China keeps them in the same room for hours.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here I go again, spewing bullshit, but I do it all for Yukten. I won't let this ship sink. NCT Vision, woohoo! Lets fucking go baby.
> 
> Wrote this in 10 minutes, so pls know its all for fun, this is probably likely most certainly not my best story. Hope you enjoy it though :D

“Try keeping your legs a little farther apart,” Ten told Lucas, whose eyebrows were knit more in frustration than concentration. He did what he was told, regardless.

“Like this?” Lucas said, mimicking Ten’s stance in the mirror.

Ten nodded, saying, “It’ll be easier to switch to the next move this way.”

They continued to practice for the next hour till their bodies bordered utter exhaustion. That is how their unit had taken to practising. They went on recklessly then knocked out for hours. Nobody had the track of days or nights, or just how many hours they spent in that room.

Since, Lucas had missed the last practice where they had learnt a good chunk of the choreography, Ten had been teaching it to him.  Of course, he didn’t have the complete hang of it himself but for now, learning was enough. They’ll have a whole another week for polishing and perfecting.

Lucas and Ten were laying on the wooden floor, drenched in sweat, their clothes a shade darker than what they had been in the morning. The choreography was intense and their diet was seriously affecting their stamina. Lucas could get by with eating lots considering how much he worked out aside from practising but for Ten, his sweet tooth made things infinitely harder. So there he lay, staring up at the white ceiling and then sideways at Lucas who had closed his eyes.

Ten continued to stare. There was nothing wrong about it. So, he took his time just looking. His eyes time and again fixated on Lucas’s lips. They were beautiful. There was no doubt about it. They were the most beautiful lips Ten had seen, permanently pouting, smooth and pink even though Lucas did not even know the concept of chapsticks. Ten, however, had no such luxury. His lips cracked even at room temperature. Instinctively he reached into his pocket and took out his favourite rose scented lip balm. It reminded him of home.

Just as he opened the balm’s cap, voices grew louder. Two people entered the room and Ten got up from his back to sit cross-legged.

“We can fit dinner somewhere in there. Lucas has been busy, besides the rookies would like going out once in a while,” the voice seemed to say. It was Kun’s. Ten smiled at him as he entered the room, but Kun was still looking at Winwin who was saying, “Right. But managers might-”

Sicheng saw Ten looking at them, so he waved. Kun too.

And then all three of them looked at Lucas, who had probably fallen asleep.

“Wake him up. Let’s go have dinner,” Kun said, looking at Ten.

Ten groaned, mentally. Why should he? People act weird after they wake up. It was hunger though that drove him to call Lucas’s name.

“Lucas, wake up! Lucas!”

It did not awaken Lucas in the slightest.

Kun and Winwin were talking amongst themselves. Something about the rookies.

This time, Ten nudged Lucas’s arm.

No response.

Ten sighed, then grabbed his shoulder and shook a little. Still no response. Ten’s pout was growing larger by the second. Who sleeps that deeply? Though, Lucas had been very very busy these days. He’d returned from a variety show shooting just today morning. Maybe he was tired. But he couldn’t just skip dinner. And Ten would _never_ give up a chance to eat outside.

So he nudged Lucas a little adamantly this time, not caring if it ended up annoying him.

“Xuxi, let’s go eat..ah please,” he was practically pleading. Although it fell on deaf ears, it seemed.

But Lucas’s lips were moving, turning very slightly into a smile. Ten narrowed his eyes. What the hell? Was he awake?

“Oy, you’re awake, right?” Ten nudged him in the side this time.

Lucas must be fighting very hard to still his face because his eyebrows were creased and lips pursed against the urge to smile.

“Whatever. Miss out on hot pot if you want, what is it to me?” Ten said, before getting up, slightly annoyed, slightly amused.

Lucas laughed behind him, sitting up. Kun shook his head but he was smiling too. Ten wanted to roll his eyes at them but found it very hard with Lucas laughing the way he did, eclipsing everything else with his liveliness.

Ten looked down at the chapstick he was still holding. He’d misplaced the cap somewhere. He looked around at the floor but to be honest, his eyesight wasn’t very reliable. So he crouched on the floor, scanning. He found it where he had been sitting earlier. Right when he was about to put it back on, a quick swipe freed his hands of the lip balm he was holding.

He looked up feeling annoyed at Lucas who had already begun gliding it across his lips.

“Don’t know why my lips are so dry today,” Lucas mumbled.

You call those dry? Ten was thinking.

“Oh, it smells really nice. Smells like you. Here,” Lucas said, handing the balm back to Ten.

Ten took it, dumbfounded. What was he supposed to say to that?

Lucas slung his bag across his shoulders and moved to follow Kun out of the room. Ten gaped on, his brain a little fuzzy from everything, lethargy, hunger, that weird compliment, butterflies when Lucas lifted his hands up to push his hair back.

“Coming?” Lucas said, waiting at the exit, holding the door open.

Ten hurried, suddenly conscious of Lucas’s scent who smelled like roses when Ten passed by him through the doorway. He felt a little lightheaded.

 


	2. Chapter 2

“What’s up with him?” Ten asked Kun, feigning indifference. Kun looked where Ten was looking and saw Lucas exercising a little too aggressively and that too inside the practice room.

 

“I wish I knew what’s up,” Kun said, shaking his head. “Truly, I never understand what goes on with any single one of you,” he added, before speeding in Chenle and Renjun’s direction to stop them from taking turns to see who could headstand the longest. 

 

Ten didn’t wanna be nosy but the boy was really going through something. Besides, it was hard to ignore Lucas counting and huffing and dying yet somehow managing to continue doing push-ups. All in all, it was becoming impossible not to wonder.

 

“Why are you punishing yourself?” Ten said, standing beside Lucas with both his hands on his hips. 

 

Lucas finally stopped and turned around to lay on his back on the floor. Drops of sweat literally rolled off him. Ten had to look away for a second. 

 

“I’m sick,” Lucas answered, still panting. Ten watched his chest heave up and down. His own breathing subconsciously matched Lucas’s.

 

“Is that a brag?” Ten mocked.

 

“Hyung, no. I feel like I’m going to fall sick. Exercising might help me fight it off,” Lucas  explained, looking up at Ten, meeting his eyes.

 

“It doesn’t work like that,” Ten mumbled. But he wasn’t gonna be the one to explain that.

  
  


Lucas coughed into his sleeve. The tiredness was visible on his face, around his red puffy eyes, about the way his shoulders slumped into the blankets piled atop him. He was shivering, Ten noticed after he had stared at Lucas too long for anyone’s good. There was something so personal about sitting by Lucas’ bed, feeding him porridge with a spoon like a child, occasionally patting the blankets as if to say ‘look you’re all warm and covered’ and it felt wrong somehow too because all they had been ever doing is bickering, arguing and mocking. Kun who was their only medium of civil conversation was away in the studio. Ten didn’t mind sitting there, in fact, he felt kinda honoured that for once he was regarded responsible for something, instead of being babied. Now he got to baby Lucas, Ten thought smugly. And it was entertaining to see Lucas pull a face of disgust at every single spoon of porridge. Ten didn’t even slow down to let him finish his first mouthful before pushing forward another. He was having his sadistic share of fun, getting back at Lucas for every time he had mocked Ten for being this or that. But to be honest, it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable without Lucas saying something snarky back. Did Ten really miss being mocked? Let’s just not talk about that.

 

Ten smiled at how miserable Lucas looked because of having to eat porridge as if it was the worst thing one could eat, not that Lucas had a wide palate, to begin with.

“Oh, come on Xuxi. It’s just porridge,” Ten said as if talking to a child who was throwing tantrums. He pushed forward another spoonful into Lucas’ mouth before he could plead for something better. Anything better.

“It’s the worst. Please,” Lucas said, coughing while he said it.

“You’re sick. Guess exercising didn’t help much at all,” Ten said, his ego blasting off.

“Neither will this porridge,” Lucas said, pushing himself deeper into the blankets and turning his back to Ten. He just would not suffer like that even if he has to beg his way into eating something worthwhile.

“Come back with fries if you’re concerned,” said Lucas in a muffled voice.

It was so childish, Ten snorted. And to think that Ten knew better and actually tried to talk Lucas out of it was even more surprising being the pickiest member among them all.

“He tried to peel the three layers of blankets off Lucas, only to have Lucas clutch them over himself with so much strength that he forgot his sickness momentarily.

“Fine,” Ten huffed.

“Really hyung??? You’re bringing me fries,” Lucas turned around to peek at Ten with a newfound hope in his eyes.

“No, I’m gonna tell Kun that you’re acting up,” Ten said, his eyebrows shooting up in glory.

“Wait, wait, no,” Lucas jumped out of the bed, to snatch the phone out of Ten’s hands. Ten couldn’t really do the ‘ok I'm so tall you can’t reach my hand’ thing, unfortunately, so all he could manage was shielding the phone with both his hands clutched close to his chest.

“Ummmmm,” came a voice from behind.

It must have looked really weird, with blankets pooling around Lucas’ feet on the floor, Lucas grabbing Ten from behind trying to reach the phone in the latter’s hand, Ten hugging himself like that?

Both of them had turned around to look at Jungwoo’s concerned voice at the same time, all of them frozen in their positions.

 

“I’m not gonna ask what you two are doing, but the manager asked to see you Ten hyung,” Jungwoo said, still a bit wide-eyed and immediately turning around to leave the room after having said what he came to say. He came to see Lucas too but man, had his timing been off.

“Wait,” Ten said, panicking god knows why.

Jungwoo turned back around, marvelling at just how awkward people could be.

“Uh……”

“...”

“Xuxi isn’t eating his porridge,” Ten blurted. Lucas threw him a dirty look. 

Jungwoo sighed. Lucas let go of Ten. Ten wanted to punch a wall.

“Please finish it,” Jungwoo said softly yet with a stern voice, a very Jungwoo way to say things. Lucas dragged himself to the bed again, covering himself with blankets again shamefully and ate some more porridge looking as if life was being systematically drained out of him. Jungwoo sat down on the stool that Ten had occupied earlier.

When Ten left the room to see the manager, he turned around one last time to look at Lucas sulking less and eating more and Jungwoo smiling down at him endearingly. And Lucas smiling back at Jungwoo with sincerity. Ten felt a jolt of jealousy. He had never made Lucas smile so softly. He had never seen stars in Lucas’ eyes so closely. Sure, he liked his playful rivalry with Lucas but maybe a just a little tiny part inside him wanted something more than this.

Ten frowned all the way to the manager.


End file.
